The True Meaning Of Victory
by CaptainRaz
Summary: Andromeda waits for news the night of the final battle, praying that her family will make it out alive.  Some of her worst fears are confirmed when Remus comes home alone.  A 'What If' Story.  Minor DH spoilers


Andromeda waits for news the night of the final battle, praying that her family will make it out alive. Some of her worst fears are confirmed when Remus comes home alone.

I refuse to think of this as AU; this story is simply non DH compliant. Because Canon is more like guidelines anyway.

A Remus/Tonks What If Story, with a dash of Andromeda on the side.

* * *

Andromeda paces up and down her pristine living room, unable to stay still for even a second, because staying still means that she will have to use her nervous energy to think and she does not want to go where she knows her thoughts will take her. It was hours ago that Nymphadora went charging off to battle after her husband, and even longer since Remus left. The first rays of sunlight are stealing through the curtains, and still there has been no word. Battles are always hardest on those who are left behind, those who cannot fight because the uncertainty is there until the very end, until someone comes to tell them who has won and who has lost; who has lived and who has died. 

And though she does not really believe in the muggle God, because she was brought a Black and has believed in magic all her life, Andromeda still prays that her daughter and son-in-law will be spared. She prays that her grandson will not have to grow up an orphan.

It is just her luck that on this night when she needs a distraction the most this is the first night that Teddy has gone to bed without a fuss, and has slept the whole night through. It is almost as though the little boy knows that tonight the fate of the world hangs in the balance. He should not have to know these things; he does not need to know that his parents have gone to battle to give him a chance of growing up in a world without prejudice; he does not need to know that there is every chance Remus and Nymphadora wont be coming back.

Teddy is just a baby, but still it seems to Andromeda that the weight of this war hangs most heavily on his head, because he stands to lose the most.

If they lose this war, then Teddy might as well never have been born; the son of a werewolf and a Metamorphmagus will not be allowed to live in a world where blood means everything. Especially considering he has pure, Black blood running in his veins too.

Even if they win, he might still have to grow up without ever seeing his pink haired mother fall over the coffee table, or his father shove his hands in his pockets and look sheepish because is he being a noble Gryffindor prat again.

She wishes that her husband were here; he would know what to say to quell her worrying, stop her pacing. Ted always had a joke for every occasion, even one as dire as this, and he always knew what to say to break the tension. How she misses him.

It is because she has lost her husband to this war that Andromeda understands Nymphadora's desire to go after her own. What Andromeda wouldn't have given to have been at Ted's side. What she wouldn't have given to have had the chance to help him; the chance to hex whoever had killed him into the next century and back.

The sun is crawling up the sky, and still Andromeda has heard no news. She does not believe that no news is good news. No news is agony.

Suddenly, there is a knock at the door, and it startles her. Her heart leaps into her throat.

_Please don't let this be the news that I have lost my daughter and son-in-law to this war as well as my husband. _

She couldn't bear that news.

"Who is it," she calls through the lump in her throat.

"It's me; it's Remus," comes a hoarse voice. The lack of security protocol worries Andromeda and she flings open the front door.

Remus stands there, looking every inch the soldier come fresh from battle. His face is pale and drawn, and there are dark circles around his eyes. There is gash down his left cheek and there are several new tears in his jumper. He has dust in his hair and grief in his eyes.

"Dora?" chokes Andromeda, using Ted's nickname for their daughter.

Remus shakes his head. "We looked everywhere; searched the entire castle. We couldn't find her. I… I don't know. I don't know what happened; I don't know what to do." The ghost of a smile flutters across his face briefly before it is replaced by the haunted, anguished look of a man who had loved and lost. "We won," he rasps. "Harry did it; Voldemort's dead. But Dora…"

Andromeda Tonks shushes her son-in-law and wraps her arms around his thin frame. They lean on each other, crying tears of grief and uncertainty on each other's shoulders, not caring that they are stood on Andromeda's doorstep in the middle of muggle suburbia.

Little things like that don't matter, not if all the colour has gone from there world.

Later, after Remus has had a shower and changed his clothes, he stands by the side of Teddy's cot, staring at his son. He is experimenting with his hair colours and somehow manages to find the exact shade of bubblegum pink that Tonks often wears. A bittersweet smile passes over Remus' face. Andromeda doesn't think that it is fair that this man who has endured so much and has lost so much should have to lose his wife as well.

He looks up at Andromeda. "I'll never stop looking for her; I won't believe she's dead until I have a body to bury."

Andromeda lays her hand on Remus' arm. "Nymphadora is an Auror, and a bloody good one at that; but more than that she is a Black, in the very best sense of the word. It's hard to kill a Black."

Remus nods, his face set and determined. Through everything that they have gone through it has never been in question that Remus loves Tonks. And Andromeda knows that if it is within his power then Remus will bring her home.

* * *

They find her three days later, trapped under a pile of rubble, and she is barely alive. Tonks was so still and so pale that at first he thought she was dead, but her chest rose and fell with every breath she took. Remus thinks that that was the most beautiful sight he has ever seen, and he thinks that the memory of finding her alive after so much doubt and worry will be happy enough to fuel some wickedly impressive Patronuses.

Tonks is out for a week after they find her, and Remus and Andromeda visit her every day. She is badly hurt; battered and broken from curses and hexes and falling rubble, and weak from three days without food and water and with only stale air to breathe. But none of that matters after the moment that her eyes flutter open. Remus smiles his first real smile for days and he kisses her hand.

"Don't you ever scare me like that ever again Nymphadora. You had me worried sick," he admonishes. But there is a playful humour in his voice, and there is relief.

Dora mumbles a word that might have been 'sorry' and then blinks.

"Don't call me Nymphadora," she chides and Remus laughs.

"Good to know you're on the mend," he says softly.

"We won?" she asks.

"We won," confirms Remus. Tonks nods, and closes her eyes again, drifting back to sleep.

The next day, Remus brings Teddy to see her. He gurgles happily at his mother and turns his hair lime green. Tonks laughs, and even though she is not supposed to, she morphs her own hair the brightest pink Remus has ever seen. With a little frown of concentration, Teddy matches her, much to Tonks' delight. Remus thinks they make for slightly silly pair; mother and son with matching pink hair, but they are also the most wonderful sight he has ever seen. He charms his own hair bright pink, and Andromeda takes a photograph; three pink haired Lupins sat on a hospital bed in St Mungo's, battered and bruised, but safe and happy.

They have weathered the storm.

A year later Remus is throwing a turquoise haired Teddy into the air as Tonks relaxes on the grass in the warm summer sun, watching her husband do his very best to make their son sick. Both of them still bear the scars of the war, emotional and physical scars, but with every day they spend as a family they grow just a little bit stronger.

The war is long over, but the soldiers who fought have yet to find peace. There are still ghosts of the past to lay to rest and battles still to be fought; battles on the political battle field with words and carefully constructed arguments rather than in dark corridors with hexes and deadly curses.

Andromeda comes out of the house as Remus stops throwing his son around, giving the giddy toddler to his mother to deal with.

"Kingsley just owled," says Andromeda. "He wanted to be the first to let us know that werewolves have been declassified from Part Human to Fully Human, except between moonrise and moonset the night of a full moon. I guess that means you two are finally married in the eyes of the ministry."

Andromeda's face erupts into a broad smile, but it cannot compare to the huge grins on the faces of Remus and Dora.

"Did you hear that Teddy? We're a proper family now," exclaims Tonks, tickling the little boy mercilessly. "I guess that means we finally win," she says, looking at her husband.

Remus cocks his head to one side, a smile playing about his lips and a thoughtful look in his eyes. He thinks they won a long time ago, and the true meaning of victory is written in every moment he spends with his family. "I guess it does," he says. "I guess it does."

And though they have been through so much to get to this place, this little family knows that it was worth it to have this final victory.


End file.
